De Blasio Tells City’s Tabloids to Apologize to His Wife

Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York reacted to front-page coverage of comments his wife made on motherhood in an interview.

Richard Perry / The New York Times

By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM

May 19, 2014

Mayor Bill de Blasio issued an unusual and stern rebuke of New York City’s tabloid newspapers on Monday, calling on them to apologize for publishing front-page headlines that suggested his wife, Chirlane McCray, had admitted to being a reluctant mother to the couple’s daughter, Chiara.

The mayor’s remarks — he called the coverage “disturbing and inappropriate” — were primarily directed at The New York Post, which featured a front-page photograph of Ms. McCray next to a headline, in two-inch type: “I Was a Bad Mom!”

The headlines referred to a profile in this week’s New York magazine in which Ms. McCray, describing the birth of her first child, said she had struggled to balance her independence and professional career with the newfound responsibilities of being a mother.

“I was 40 years old; I had a life,” Ms. McCray told the magazine. “The truth is, I could not spend every day with her. I didn’t want to do that. I looked for all kinds of reasons not to do it.” She added: “It took a long time for me to get into ‘I’m taking care of kids,’ and what that means.”

Ms. McCray, in the interview, said she still felt guilty about the experience.

Mr. de Blasio, who has taken pains to portray his wife as a prominent and powerful member of his administration, decided midday on Monday that he wanted to address the headlines, and ordered his aides to organize a question-and-answer session with reporters.

“It suggests a tremendous misunderstanding of what it means to be a parent, what it means to be a mother,” Mr. de Blasio said of the coverage.

“A lot of hardworking women in this city are offended,” Mr. de Blasio added. “I think both The Post and The Daily News owe Chirlane an apology. I think they owe all of us an apology.”

The Daily News ran a smaller photograph of Ms. McCray on its front page, above the headline, “Didn’t want to be a mom.”

But it was the front page of The Post that drew criticism on social media on Monday, with some saying it had contributed to a culture in which mothers feel unable to speak openly about the complex emotions that can be involved in raising a child.

Several allies of Mr. de Blasio turned to social media to defend the first lady. “The @nypost’s repulsive distortion of @Chirlane’s @NYMag interview, shows that they do not even hold motherhood to be sacred,” the Rev. Al Sharpton wrote on Twitter.

The New York chapter of the National Organization for Women addressed the cover on its Twitter account, urging users to write messages of support for Ms. McCray using the hashtag “#standwithchirlane.”

Representatives of The Post and The Daily News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.